Mariko Ishii vs. Armando 'Army' Rodriguez - Bow Down

”Aw, come on…”

More dizzy than anything, Army started to push his way up as best as he could, shaking off the disorientation as best as he could. He expected Mariko to be good, but this was something else. Even Carmen wasn’t this far ahead of him when they sparred - it was like Mariko knew exactly where to be and when to be the best effect.

He’s just made it to a knee, when he got to see something he liked, closer than he expected to - Mariko’s ass. Coming right at his face. Full force.

For something that looked so plump and squeezable, Mariko’s butt could hit like a hammer, and it slammed hard into Army’s face, knocking him right back down to the mat. Even more disoriented than before and hurting to boot, Army rolled under the ropes and made his way to the outside, leaning on the apron for support while he tried to make some sense of the past two or so minutes.

Mariko giggled to herself as she climbed back up to her feet. A running hip attack wasn’t a typical part of her arsenal, but it did the job of keeping the pressure on Army, and she had a feeling getting dropped by a gorgeous woman’s ass wouldn’t be the most flattering thing in the world for a guy like him.

She turned to find him so she could keep up the attack, only to find he had rolled under the ropes and was resting against the apron. “Aww, not trying to run away now, are you?” Mariko asked teasingly, though inwardly she was debating the best way to handle this. On one hand she could stay there, let the ref start counting, and eventually Army would have no choice but to come right back into the ring. But that meant giving the boxer valuable recovery time.

On the other hand, chasing after Army bore the risk of something unfortunate happening at ringside, which was rarely a safe place to be, but offered the potential of halting his recovery right in its tracks. That last part was enough motivation for Mariko, so after a couple seconds she moved toward the ropes to climb through, intending to keep taking the fight to him.

Army wasn’t running away. Oh, he was sure it looked like at first glance, but in reality, he was merely taking a strategic withdrawal. Gather his mind, take a breath, clear out the gunk and figure out what his next move would be.

It looked like Mariko wasn’t going to give him much time for that, though, since she making her way out to go after him. Smart move, cutting down on his alone time, and she could’ve caught him unawares...but he had an idea or two to work with.

He started to rise up as she came through the ropes nearby, but he didn’t get up all the way - just high enough. The moment she stepped through and put both of her dainty feet on the ring apron, that was when he went into action.

Army took a big step forward and swung his arm in long arc underneath the rope, trying to hit her in the ankles before she could get down to the floor. It’d be a nasty fall to take if it worked.

Mariko had to make her choice in a matter of seconds, but the logic still seemed pretty sound at the time. Taking the fight to Army was wiser than playing things too safe and letting him recover. And considering how things had gone so far, she doubted he’d be in the best shape to fight back.

Unfortunately for her, that proved to be a miscalculation on her part. The second she finished moving through the ropes, both her feet were suddenly knocked straight out from under her! Her eyes went wide and her body quickly tilted back. And then…

“Gah!” she cried out as her upper back slammed hard against the apron, and things only worsened when her body then immediately collapsed with a hard thud on the floor at ringside! Never in her life had Mariko been so thankful for the thin mats placed around the ring. They didn’t take soften the landing much at all, but even as she laid there and endured the sudden pain surging through her, Mariko understood she could be in even worse shape had they not been there.

The crowd gasped when Army made Mariko take a tumble, and he gasped along with them, stumbling back a couple of steps as she fell. In truth, he was having trouble believing that what just happened had actually happened. Mariko had been two steps ahead of him so far throughout the match, it was hard to think he’d gotten the better of her. Like a fly you’d been trying to swat for hours, only to finally luck up by accidentally sitting on it.

But there was the proof, right before him. She was down and out, and he was in a prime position to capitalize.

The referee started a slow count, but Army paid it little mind. Instead, he reached down and grabbed Mariko by the head, lifting her up with a growing smirk on his face. ’Let me help you up, ‘mistress’.”

With those playful words, Army got behind Mariko, pulled her back over his shoulders, then reached between her legs and pulled down on her thigh and chin, trying to bend her with a dominating torture rack!

Confident as Mariko clearly was in herself, she wasn’t so conceited she couldn’t laugh at herself. If not for the pain she was currently dealing with, Army’s little comment probably would’ve earned at least a giggle from the Japanese beauty. As it was, he’d just have to deal with the lack of reaction and decide for himself whether his words had been as clever as he thought.

Though Mariko hardly had any time to give that much thought anyway. Soon she was being lifted up. By the time she knew what was happening, she was already staring up at the ceiling and feeling her body being painfully stretched out across Army’s shoulders.

“Aagh!!” she cried out before gritting her teeth, trying to keep herself from screaming out. Whether that was an intention effort preserve the air in her lungs or purely an instinctive reaction, even she wasn’t quite sure. All she knew was the ref’s count would be starting, and Army couldn’t pick up a submission win outside the ring. Sure enough…

“One…! Two…!” the voice echoed out from a handful of feet away.

So Mariko had several seconds she’d likely have to endure before Army decided to release her. A nice idea initially...but only two seconds in, the thought of just “enduring” the rest was hardly appealing. Mariko began to squirm frantically on the big boxer’s shoulders, while throwing wild elbow strikes toward his head. In her current position she couldn’t exactly aim them well. She just wanted to get out of this hold as soon as possible, and was willing to do anything she thought might speed along that process.

Army would give Mariko credit - she was tough. Tougher than you’d guess from a look at her.

There he was, six feet tall, strong, with good hard shoulders to bend her on. Her body was toned, a lot more solid than it seemed at first glance, but he was still able to get some good torque on her. He knew this had to hurt, and she should’ve been screaming to high heavens.

She did give up a little shriek, but only a little one, before she clamped down and didn’t make another peep. Not bad. Hardcore.

He would’ve been content to keep this up for a while, but there was the whole matter of a count out, with the referee getting closer and closer to a finish that nobody wanted to see. He fully intended to put her back inside, but he wanted to milk this for a little long, wait until the last moment, when her spine was thoroughly wrenched.

Of course, that plan required her to let it happen, and Mariko wasn’t about that in the least. He took the first elbow well enough, but the second rocked his jaw and loosened it up, while the third cracked him right in the eye. Startled and stunned by the blows, he unceremoniously dropped Mariko from his shoulders and stumbled away, taking a moment to rub his head. For such a lady, she hit hard.

Mariko’s strikes may have been an act of desperation, but fortunately they proved effective - though not until she’d endured a few more excruciating seconds of being bent over Army’s broad shoulders. But finally she felt his grip loosen, allowing her to fall off of him. The landing wasn’t graceful by any stretch. She just plummeted down onto the thin mats with a thud and a grunt. But she was out of that damned hold, and that’s all that mattered. Meanwhile…

“Five…! Six…!”

The ref was still counting. Mariko knew things would be far better off for her in the ring rather than risking a countout or more dangerous collisions with the thinly padded ringside floors. She started pulling herself up, taking heavy but controlled breaths to try to get her breathing back under control while she crawled toward the ring.

“Seven…!”

She reached up and grabbed the bottom rope, then attempted to pull herself under the bottom rope to roll back into the ring. With any luck, Army would be too dazed to stop her from getting back in.

Army was trying to be a good sport about this, but he couldn't help a little curse under his breath when Mariko managed to escape. Of course she managed to get away, she was more slippery than a buttered eel. A lot of people would just write off the trouble he was having as a guy getting blinded by a hot body, but he didn’t have this trouble with Amy, and she was his girlfriend.

Or was, anyway. Complicated, that.

His mind began to wander, and when he pulled it back in, he noticed that Mariko was trying to make her way into the ring, and Army would’ven loved to stop her, if only…

”Eight!”

Yeah, that.

He reached out to stop her, but stopped halfway, figuring it was best not to risk things. With a grunt, he rolled back in shortly after Mariko did, right as the referee called the penultimate number.

When Mariko rolled into the ring she stayed fairly close to an adjacent set of ropes, which she used to start easing herself back up just as Army rolled back in. She was fairly lucky that Army had been on defense for a lot of this - though Mariko’s back was still aching considerably after her fall outside the ring and the torture rack. But despite that pain, she knew it wasn’t enough to keep her down for long.

But maybe Army didn’t know that.

Here Mariko had a couple options. If she got to her feet quick enough, she might be able to rush the big boxer down before he could come at her again. Though the last time she tried that, it didn’t turn out so well. So a more conservative approach seemed best this time. But she had to make it convincing.

“Ngh…” she weakly groaned and grimaced, moving a hand to gently rest on the part of her back that had taken the worst of her little spill onto the ringside floor, while acting as if the act of pulling herself back up was putting a much bigger strain on her than it really was. If she successfully baited the big guy into coming after her, she’d know her little ploy had been a success.